Welcome to smoke-free Scotland

It's fabulous. Just been to Cottiers - it's a sort of trendy pub in Glasgow's West End where people who are reasonably groovy but are too lazy to travel into town go. If you follow the link, you'll see that Jane from Partick (just down the road) describes it thus:

"Great atmosphere, loads of seats!"

She also described the prices as 'fairly cheap', which leads me to believe she's just back from London, but never mind. I know it's Monday night but being a frequent visitor to said establishment, I think it is fair to say that the balance has shifted noticeably and decisively towards the latter - but rather at the expense of the former...

Quick! Grab those seats...

Oh, it's ok - there's plenty more over there...

Can you see yonder barman? "Are you lonesome tonight?"

Usually, the bar is a struggle; tonight, one barman takes your money and gives you your change while the other one pours. Now that's what I call service.

The barman smokes. Me and my companion, the only other people in the bar half an hour before closing time, also smoke. Yet in Scotland today, had he shared a cigarette with us, his employer would receive a fine of two and a half thousand pounds and we would have got a fifty quid fixed penalty each.

If we'd stepped outside and smoked a joint, we'd get a caution.

It's called 'progress', apparently.